West Africa's Evolving Competitive Exposure in U.S. Import Markets

This study utilizes a recently developed measure of one nation's competitive exposure to other nations on its export sales to analyze the competitive exposure facing West Africa nations on sales to the United States from 1996 to 2006. The methodology extends previous research by accounting both for similarity in export profiles across nations and for the absolute size of export sales by each nation. We identify changes over time in the importance of different world regions as competitors to West Africa nations, and we highlight the product groups most responsible for West Africa's competitive exposure to other world regions on sales in the United States.